CL 390 F Nov 19.docx

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CL 390 F- Nov. 19
Roman Magic
 Problems are historical and textual
 Problem with roman magic, was that is was illegal to be magician or practice
magic
 Cato (95-46 BC)- legal mind, senator- discusses incantations
 What is the difference between religion and magic?
 Magic is personal
 Religion is communal
 We are talking about an individual, it’s the individual involved directly with
healing/fixing things
 Magic has a sense of private problems
 Allows the person to feel that they are in control of how the magic will be used on
them
 Personal aspect of religion does not exist- focuses more on the state and how the
state runs, the gods have a hand in this
 Magic can be seen a threat
 This unequal relationship goes back to the 12 tables
 Clear and defined regulations
 Romans does not acknowledge the power of magic
 Religion is seen as a relationship with the celestial gods
 This relationship is defined by the state or the official state
 That which determines what the relationship is going to be
 Religio Romana
 Do not know how they prayed
 James Frazer- religion we talk about comes from him, it is his ideology that is
given to us
 The Roman world had a strict pantheon of gods- 12 like the Greeks, had to
perform certain tasks
 He understands magic as a bad version of religion
 Numen- is emanation emerging of the gods, not just one thing, the job of one god
is not the same, is something that the deity does not do, the numen comes from
the god whether they do it or not
 Genius- (gens) life force, energy, related to a group of people, processes that
allow the energy to be, the genius does not have to do anything, it can just be
 The Romans understood this much better then we do
 Everything and everyone has a genius- humans and objects
 The Roman